Climbing our Family Tree

Thomas Randall & Susan. This family first appears in the Saint Nicholas Parish registers with the burial of a daughter in 1783. This was followed by the baptisms of nine children over the next fifteen years. A marriage for this couple was not found in the Harwich records.

Known children....

Esther was born 15th April 1781, christened 28th November 1784 with brother, Thomas. Esther married William English 8th September 1803, by Banns, at the St Nicholas chapel. Both gave their mark, and witnesses were Robert Enefer and William Edwards. Esther was a witness in 1805 at the marriage of Charles Carter and Susan Horn. Only one child's baptism was found - Elizabeth was born 17th May 1808, christened 15th July and buried five days later on the 20th July. Esther was buried 18th February 1813, aged 31 years.

Sarah was buried 4th September 1783. Her age is not known, it is supposed that she belongs between Esther and Thomas by their birth dates.

Thomas was born 4th November 1784, christened 28th November with elder sister Esther. There are some possible baptisms for children by Thomas, wives names of Mary and Sarah, but no marriage found, nor any sign of them in later census years.

Rachel was born 27th September 1786, christened 11th October, and buried 30th October 1795, aged 9 years.

Mary Ann was born 14th August, 1788, christened 10th September, and buried 22nd April 1790, aged 2 years.

William was born 20th August 1790 and christened 15th September. There is a possible marriage of our William to Mary Balaam in 1826, but nothing further found for this couple.

John Randall was born 23rd July and christened 17th August 1792. Nothing further found for John.

Henry Randall was born 28th April 1794, christened 23rd May and buried 26th December 1798, aged 4 years.

Robert Randall (Rob's 3x great grandfather) was born 7th June 1796, and christened on the 10th June 1798. He married Sarah Cole.

Rachel was born 17th May 1798, and christened 10th June. On 9th January 1817 she married John Warner Fenn, with consent by her parents, at the Chapel of St Nicholas. Her name was written as Rachel Randle in the register, but she signed her name Rachel Randall. John gave his mark. Witnesses were Joseph Rigley and Mary Benson (or Beason). I have found one child so far - Harriot Sarah born about 1819 at Harwich.

3rd Great Grandparents

Robert Randall was born the 7th June 1796 at Harwich, Essex - he appears to be the ninth child of ten, and fifth son, of Thomas Randall and Susan (surname unknown). This Randall family first appears in the Saint Nicholas Parish registers with the burial of Robert's elder sister in 1783. This was followed by the baptisms of nine children over the next fifteen years. Robert was christened on the 10th June 1798 at the Saint Nicholas Church of England.

Sarah Cole was born about 1797 at Boxted, Essex. Nothing further is known about her, and a firm baptism has not been found in Boxted. Parts of those registers are illegible. It is possible that they are related to the Cole and / or Randall families of Great Oakley since Robert and Sarah appear to have spent the first years of married life living there, before returning to Harwich.

Banns for the marriage of Robert and Sarah were read on Sunday 30th November, as well as the 7th and 14th December, followed by the marriage at the Chapel of Saint Nicholas on the 20th December, 1817. Both parties were single and from the local parish. The witnesses were Robert's brother-in-law, John Fenn, and Mary Benson (or Beason). Mary was also a witness to the marriage of Robert's sister Rachel to John Fenn early in 1817. Robert signed the register in a firm hand, Sarah gave her mark.

Robert was noted as a shoemaker on all baptisms except the one for Esther, where it was written that he was a labourer. At some stage he did take up work other than shoemaking, including sweeping streets (census entries below). He was noted many years later as a shoemaker, particularly on his daughters' marriage registrations - the sons didn't mind recording him as a labourer. I have not yet tried to find any shoemaker apprenticeship records for Robert.

It is believed (but not supported with certificates) that Robert died (aged 74) during the March quarter 1870, with Sarah (aged 73) passing during the September quarter of the same year. These deaths are registered in the Tendring district, and the ages match our couple. The burials were not found in the Harwich registers, but the parish records did not look complete for that year, with only a few burials recorded. I did not check the Dovercourt burial film for them.

Known children....

Robert Cole Randall was baptized at Great Oakley on 26th April, 1818 barely four months after their marriage. Hi father Robert is noted as a shoemaker. Robert, a mariner, married Lucy Ablett, the widow of John Spendley. Lucy (born 1823 Harwich) had a daughter, Eleanor, from her previous marriage.

William Cole Randall was christened at Great Oakley on the first of March, 1820. This time the mother has been noted as Mary, however the father was Robert Randall, shoemaker. This could be an error in the transcription when the original church registers were copied into new books by the church. From the father's name, and the middle name of Cole, we expect this child to be the second son. His mariner records state that William was born 20 February 1820, and went to sea as a boy in 1833. William married Sarah Crickmore (born 1821 at Sproughton, Suffolk, daughter of Samuel Crickmore and Lucy Wright).

The first John Randall was born 16th January, 1822 and baptized at Saint Nicholas Church of England in Harwich on the 7th of February. He died just days before his 4th birthday, being buried 14th January 1826.

The first Thomas Cole Randall was born on the 18th September 1823, being christened on the 8th October. He died, aged a little over 5 weeks, and was buried 24th October.

Sarah Cole Randall was born 12th September 1824, and christened 8th October. Sarah worked as a servant before she married a mariner, William Woolley (born 1832 Tidmouth, Devon).

Susannah Read Randall was born 7th January 1827, and christened 23rd February. We do not yet know the significance of Read as a middle name, but in 1861 her parents did share the same building with a Read family. Susannah also married a mariner, Thomas Peck (born abt 1825 in either Dovercourt, Wix or Harwich - his birthplace varied with each census)

John Cole Randall, (Rob's great great grandfather) was born 19th October, 1828 and christened 14th November. In 1841 he was living at home aged 12. He has not been found in the 1851 English census, however he could have been at sea if he was originally a mariner like his brothers. John went to Australia around 1855 during the gold rushes and worked in gold mines. He married Mary Anna McMillan, the Melbourne born daughter of a publican.

Thomas Cole Randall was born 11th August 1830, but not christened for nearly five years. His mariner records record his birth as 14th August, 1830 and he went to sea, as an apprentice aged 14 in 1844. He married Rebecca Ladbrook (born 3rd April 1837 Bradfield, Essex, dau of William Ladbrook and Rebecca Read).

Esther Randall was born 2nd August 1832 and christened barely two weeks later. It is odd that Thomas had not been christened at this time. Esther died when she was 5 years old, buried 28th December 1837.

Rachel Randall was born 30th December 1834 and christened, along with her brother Thomas, on the 30th January 1835. Rachel worked as a dressmaker, and married Joseph Whiney, master mariner.

1841 census, West Street, St Nicholas, Harwich Robt. RANDALL - 45 - lab, Sarah - 40, Susannah - 14, John - 12, Thomas - 10, Rachael - 6, All born in county

1851 census, West Street Harwich Robert RANDALL 54 street sweeper born Harwich, Sarah wife 53 born Boxted, Robert 32 son unmarried mariner born Gt Oakley, Sarah 26 daughter unmarried house servant born Harwich, Thomas son 20 unmarried mariners app, Rachel 16 daughter dressmaker [Susannah and young Thomas PECK living next door]

1861 census, Parish of Saint Nicholas, Town of Harwich, 63 West Street (multi households within building) Schedule 41 Robert RANDALL, Head, mar, 64, Labourer, Essex Harwich, Sarah, wife, mar, 62, Essex Boxted, Rachael, dau, unm, 26, Dressmaker, Essex Harwich. In same building are Sarah and Susannah and their families.

Great Great Grandparents

John Cole Randall was born 19th October 1828 at Harwich, Essex, England - the fifth son and seventh child of Robert Randall and Sarah Cole. He was christened 14th November at the Saint Nicholas Church of England, Harwich. In 1841, he was living at home aged 12. He has not been found in the 1851 census, however he could have been at sea if he was originally a mariner like his brothers. It is believed that John came to Australia about 1855, during the gold rush era, to try his hand at gold mining.

Mary Anna McMillan, was born 7th January 1847 at Melbourne, Australia, the second child and first daughter of John Evander McMillan, publican, and Mary Ann Hunt. Mary Ann was christened Mary Anna at St James Church, Melbourne, along with her elder brother on 26th June 1850.

A marriage has been claimed for John and Mary Ann in 1867 at Matlock, Victoria. John was a gold miner, now almost 40, and Mary was 20 years old. There is no record of this marriage and it might not have taken place. In later birth and death registration documents, Mary Ann has been consistent with a marriage in this year and place. Her father died in Matlock in December of 1867. At this time, the gold mining town of Matlock was the highest settled area in Victoria.

It appears that John had told Mary Ann that he was around 32 years old, as she consistently gave an age on registration documents which indicated a birth year of about 1836.

John and Mary Ann moved down the mountains to the Ghin Ghin gold fields, just out of Yea. Robert McMillan Randall, their first child, was born on the 9th of November, 1868. The birth was attended by a Mrs Smyley who probably acted as midwife. It was six weeks before the birth was registered in Yea, and Mary Ann signed the registration. The following day Mrs Smyley came in and registered her sixth child, one born many months before at Loy's Diggings. Her husband was a bootmaker.

Almost a year later, in late October of 1869, John was working in the gold mine when a quartz reef collapsed on him. His head was badly crushed and he was taken to the Kilmore Hospital. This would have been a lengthy journey by dray, by which he probably taken on a mattress. At Kilmore he was diagnosed with a fractured skull. John missed young Robert's first birthday as he slowly recovered in hospital. Some seven weeks after admission, John discharged himself on the 16th December. Since that time he suffered from the occasional fit. In October, 1873 he had ten fits in the one week.

During 1871, the second son John Cole Randall was born. Their only daughter, Flora McMillan Randall was born in 1873.

Four and a half years after the accident, in April, 1874, John had been discharged from work at the antimony reef, and was at home when he began to have convulsive fits. Over the weekend, he was having convulsions on and off day and night. About 4 o'clock Monday afternoon Mary Ann went and asked John's work mate, William Lewis, to come and stay with him the night as she was unable to cope alone any longer. The frequency had increased and John lapsed into unconsciousness. He awoke about one in the morning, but did not respond to William or Mary Ann's questions. He complained of cold, so William put some more blankets on the bed. He continued having fits, until he gradually died about 5 o'clock on Tuesday morning, the 7th of April. No doctor had been called, there may not have been one in the area at the time.

John's body was taken to Seymour, where a Coroners Inquest was held at the Canadian Hotel before twelve jurors. William Lewis and Mary Ann both gave lengthy statements as to the previous head injury that John had sustained, his hospital recovery and his frequency of fitting since the accident. William had known John for about seven years and stated that he was a steady, regular man and he had only ever seen him once the worse for liquor, and that John lived on good terms with his wife. The verdict was returned: "Deceased died from convulsive fits, probably the result of an accident some four years ago"

That same day, the 9th April, he was buried in the Seymour Cemetery. His grave is unmarked. This cemetery is now known as Pioneer Park, and has a memorial to all buried there. John appears as John Randle - the policeman who registered his death after the inquest did not spell his name in the usual manner. John's parents were not recorded on the registration. John Cole Randall was 45 years old, but Mary Ann believed him to be only 38.

Young Robert was now five, John three, and Flora just ten months old and, according to the inquest papers, Mary Ann was left destitute.

However, Mary Ann did not stay alone for very long, as from 1876 to 1887 the birth of five children were registered: George, Samuel, Elizabeth, Harry and Ellen. All these children were surnamed Randall but most later had the middle name of Coventry. It is believed that their father was Samuel Coventry Buckoke, who was the informant on Samuel and Ellen's birth registrations, his relationship as a 'friend'. It was also his home at Whitehead's Creek, Seymour, that these two births took place. On 21st May, 1888, Samuel and Mary Ann were married, but Samuel died later that same year. Daughter, three year old Ellen, died 1889 and was buried as a Buckoke (both their names appear on the Seymour Park Memorial).

It is not known if these children were ever told that Samuel Buckoke was their father. The eldest boy, George, had the Buckoke added to his name when he married in Seymour in 1907. This marriage ended in divorce in 1923; and he remarried the following year as George Coventry Randall. George firstly said his father was Samuel Randall Coventry Buckoke, a soldier. Next time he stated his father as Samuel Coventry Randall, a labourer. I have not located the three children from George's first marriage, but I believe they may have also dropped the Buckoke and became Randall's as well. There is no evidence that the other three children who survived to adulthood had ever used any surname apart from Randall.

We have had some correspondence with a Buckoke in England, descending from Samuel's ancestors, and it seems that Samuel's grandfather was one Charles Coventry, who had an affair with Samuel's grandmother, Elizabeth Buckoke, resulting in his father - Charles Coventry Buckoke born 1814 in Hertfordshire, England.

(Buckoke Randall's own page here)

It is not known exactly when, but probably after Samuel's death in 1888, Mary Ann moved into Seymour. In 1897, daughter Flora was 24 years old and pregnant. She had her baby at Mary Ann's home in Hanna Street, Seymour. It was over ten years later in 1908, before Flora married a widower, Alphonsius Waugh, and had three more children

Mary Ann, our great great grandmother, died on the 24th February, 1922, aged 75. She was living with son George, at 12 Collett Street, Kensington, a Melbourne suburb. Mary Ann had had a cerebral haemorrhage several years before, and she died within 36 hours of this second attack. The next day she was buried in the Coburg cemetery,. Today, she lays alone, her unmarked grave engulfed by a large attractive bushy palm tree. She was buried as Mary Ann Randall, but her death was registered as Mary Ann Buckoke.

George was the informant on this death registration, but left himself and his full siblings off the list of issue - probably because they were not the product of the actual marriage, having been born before it took place.

Great Grandparents

Robert McMillan Randall was born on the 9th November, 1868, at Ghin Ghin, a gold mining town near Yea, the eldest of three children, and first son of John Randall and Mary Ann McMillan. The witness listed on the birth registration record was Mrs Smyley, On the same record, Mrs Smyley had registered a 9 month old baby of her own, her sixth child. It is probable that she aided in the birth of Robert, though she is not noted as the midwife. Her name appears further down the column and there is no way of identifying in what capacity she witnessed - as midwife, nurse, occupier or other witness.

Helena Prince was born in Oct 1870 at Avenel; the eldest of fourteen children to Joseph Prince and Eliza Jane Mutton.

Robert grew up in the Seymour area and Avenel is nearby. On the 3rd April, 1894, as Helena Randall, Helena registered the birth of Lillie Eliza Randall [born the 22nd February, 1894, at 288 Lygon Street, Carlton; the first of eleven children, including a set of twins] Helena claimed a marriage at Wahgunyah on the 7th March, 1893. However, Robert and Helena didn't actually get married until she was in early pregnancy with their second child.

They married on the 7th August, 1895, at Hoddle Street, Collingwood, most likely in a private ceremony, the witnesses supplied by the marriage place. Robert, aged 24, was a Blacksmith and Helena was 23, no occupation listed, both living at Carlton.

When Helena registered the birth of Robert Leslie, she told the Registrar that they had been married at Wunghnu on the 7th May, 1893. Wunghnu is near Nurmurkah, up the road from Shepparton. The 1899 Federal Referendum Roll has a Frederick Mutton registered as living in Wunghnu. This is Helena's uncle (a half-brother to Helena's mother) and he was a blacksmith and it is possible that this is where Robert learnt his trade and met Helena. (pure imagination at work here!) In 1911, Helena registered the births of twins, Pearl and Ruby, and again cites a Wunghnu wedding, this time 7th March, 1893. So it was important to her to not make it obvious that her first child was born out of wedlock. I believe this is the reason that they went from rural Victoria to the city suburbs.

I have seen a brief history about the Mutton family from Avenel which reports that Helena married Robert Randall, a mounted policeman. A letter from the Police Historical Department informed me that they have no record of him ever being a member of the police force. Robert has always been recorded as a Blacksmith; maybe he used to shoe police horses! However, their eldest daughter, Lillie did marry a policeman, who rose to the rank of Inspector, spending most of his service as a constable.

Robert and Helena's eleven children are: Lillie Eliza; Robert Leslie (Bobbie); Ivy; Doris; Florence May; Helena Ann (known as Lena); John (Jack); Joseph; twins Pearl and Ruby; and Rose. One of the twins, Ruby, died at just a year old from rickets and meningitis, after being ill for three months.

At some stage Robert and Helena moved from 185 Princes Street, to 149 Nicholson Street, Carlton. They were there in 1911 when the twins were born.

At age 66, Helena died on the 22nd May, 1937 at 202 Nicholson St., Fitzroy. She had leukaemia for two years and this lead to her heart failing. She was buried on the 24th May in the Coburg Cemetery; Church of England Compartment B, Grave 27. Also buried here are Ruby, her twin Pearl, and Pearl's first husband who was tragically killed not long after they married - the grave has an iron fence and a plaque marked RANDALL.

Two years later, aged 70, Robert McMillan died on the 30th April, 1939, at 80 Smith Street, Collingwood. He had two years of illness with cancer of the liver and bowel. He was buried on the 2nd May, 1939 in the Fawkner Cemetery; Church of England Compartment R, grave 2243. He remains buried alone in an unmarked grave, under the big pine trees in the back corner; a few graves up are two of his nephews, sons of his sister Flora, who is also buried just a short walk away.

Grandparents

next update perhaps.

7 November 2006